Dark Souls Walkthrough and Strategy Wiki SuperGuide

Aug 21, 2012

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Aug 21, 2012
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The Art of the Suicide Run

You will die in Dark Souls...a lot. Normally, dying is a stressful event that causes you to lose all of your souls and puts the pressure on you to reach your bloodstain without dying in order to gain them back. However, dying does not take away any of the weapons, armor, or items that you found before your demise. So after you've leveled up and your soul count is relatively low, it might be a good idea to try sprinting through a particularly tough area and grabbing as much loot as possible before you succumb to the horde. If your character is wearing light enough armor, you can outrun a vast majority of the game's enemies, and with your soul count low, there isn't that strict of a penalty for dying.

How to Reverse Your Curse

If you've ventured into the Depths below the Undead Berg, you have probably encountered a slew of relatively weak frog creatures. If you managed to defeat them quick enough, then they provided little to no worry. However, if you lingered and allowed them to breath on you, you probably became the victim of their curse. Not only does being cursed immediately kill your character, but it also drops your HP total nearly in half until you can get yourself cured.

Before venturing into the Depths, it is highly recommended that you have already rung the first bell. We say this because there is an ominous robed figure at the bottom of the bell tower who offers you to join his covenant, as well as sells you the Purging Stone. For 4000 souls, this stone is one of the only means of reversing a curse placed on your character. If you get cursed before you ring the first bell, you'll have to face off against the twin gargoyles who guard the tower in your weakened state.

Another way to cure your curse is to find the vendor on top of the stone house in the New Londo Ruins. However, this is recommended for higher level players only due to the fact that the area is crawling with ghosts who will chop your lower level character to bits long before you can reach your goal.

One last thing to note regarding curses is that there is a beneficial element to them. Despite the degradation to your HP total, being cursed allows you to combat the ghosts in the New Londo Ruins without the need for a Transient Curse item or a rare cursed weapon. If you're feeling brave enough, tackling the Ruins cursed may be your best option.

Wade Through the Water

You're going to find yourself wading through water and muck numerous times throughout Dark Souls. These sections will leave your character's movements severely limited. Your speed will be reduced, and your ability to roll will be pretty much taken away. This hampered mobility can lead to very quick death.

The only way to combat this problem is by venturing back to the Undead Asylum after you've rung the first bell. There you will find the Rusted Iron Ring, which allows you to retain your footing on even the most atrocious of terrain. This includes water and swamps, making it the perfect ring to have equipped in Blighttown and at bottom of Darkroot Basin.

What the Hell is Humanity?

Dark Souls is a game that does very little handholding, especially when it comes to explaining certain game mechanics. One of these is the number that appears in the upper left hand corner of the screen. This double digit is usually going to be set to 00, but every so often you might see it jump up to 01. This means that your character has gained a Humanity point. Humanity is gained in a number of ways, such as killing enough enemies over the course of a single life, killing specific bosses, defeating an online invader, murdering certain NPCs, or consuming a Humanity or Twin Humanities item.

When you sit down at a bonfire, you're given the option to spend 1 humanity point and "Reverse Hollowing." This will transform your character from a degenerating ghoul back into human form. Once human, you open up new dialogue choices with certain characters in the world. You also gain the ability to spend another Humanity point and Kindle a bonfire that you're currently at. Kindling will increase the number of Estus Flasks you gain at that specific bonfire from 5 to 10. Later on in the game you can find an item in the Catacombs called the Rite of Kindling. This object will allow you to kindle bonfires past the 10 Flask limit. Once human, you'll also be treated differently by various NPCs. Most will act more cordially towards you now that you're no longer Hollowed.

Aside from these, the biggest advantage to being human is that you are allowed to summon NPCs and other players into your world to help you with specific battles.